ADL Hails Ban on Race-norming

The Anti-Defamation League has welcomed what it sees as the first tangible benefit of the 1991 Civil Rights Act: a Labor Department ban on race-norming.

The Labor Department announced recently that state employment service offices and contractors who use the department’s general aptitude test battery will no longer be able to adjust test scores on the basis of race or ethnicity.

This practice, known as race-norming, was condemned by the ADL in a letter to President Bush last May that urged him to order government agencies to abandon this practice. A ban on race-norming was included in the Civil Rights Act adopted by Congress this fall.

“When minority applicants are ranked only within their own particular racial or ethnic group, the implication is they cannot compete against the general applicant pool,” the ADL said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“ADL has always believed that it is illegal, ineffective and immoral for employers to hire or promote by reference to an individual’s race, ethnicity, or gender,” the group said.